Hi Guys,

I have a 2000 Dodge Dakota Sprt 3.9L V6. Every time it rains or snows or anything along those lines my truck will not start just replaced battery last mouth. Two of my local garage's are telling me this chip needs to be replaced and its 1300 bucks. Can anyone shine some light on this for me please.

Thanks
RitualJman

 

what chip are they talking about?

 

Well, unless the rain is infiltrating the cab and running onto the computer (which is the "chip" I am assuming you are talking about) I doubt that is the issue...

If you want to not spend $1300, you need to get under it and start looking for loose or frayed wires or other spots where water could get on the electronics...sounds like there is something that is getting wet and then grounding out to me...

The shops are, I bet, GUESSING...

 

My moms plymouth voyager used to have issues in the rain, found out it was the distributor or coil getting wet causeing it to die in the rain

 

I'd bet its a corroded connection somewhere. If it's not starting when its wet out after you parked it when it was dry out its probably moisture in the air causing a corroded connection to flake out on you.
I had an old Bronco II years ago that did the same thing. One of the numerous time I got stranded I started looking over all the connections and found one by the fuse panel on the fender wall that was rotted out and green. A pair of wire cutters and a few wire nuts had me on my way and lasted to the end of the vehicle several years later.
Think about it logically, is the starter turning, is the fuel pump running, so on and then start looking at all wiring your not sure is working.
$1300 is alot of money to fork over without looking a bit deeper first.

 

Check to see if your fuel pump is coming on and that your getting spark. Another idea is look at your distributor to see if it is getting wet. They are right under where the hood stops so if you are missing the gasket there that could be causing it to get wet.

 

I want to know what chip costs $1300 to replace.

 

Thats what i just went out and bought from Fishers Auto Parts for 28 bucks was a new Cap and Rotor because that is what i think to be the problem not the Computer chip.

 

if they are talking about the pcm the dealer quoted me the same price. i went on ebay and bought one for 200 +50 for overnight shipping.

 

I just bought a computer from Auto Computer Exchange off of Ebay for $165 shipped both ways. They sent me a refurbish unit, I plugged it in and ran it for about a week to make sure it fixed the problem, then returned my old computer in the same box with prepaid shipping back to them. Shipping took about 4 days for me.

I you want to save even more cash, send them your unit for them to refurbish, and they will send it back to you. $125 total.